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From NPR

I think there are some deeper things going on to do.

I find the sentence is a little odd to me. I know an expression called "go on to do", which means "to do something after you have finished doing something else". Does the quotation have the same usage? Does it mean we should do something deeper just right now? If it is, considering the following example:

John is going on to do his homework.

  1. Is the sentence right? If it is, What's the exact meaning of it? Is John doing his homework or not? Or just preparing to do his homework?
  2. What's the passive voice of the sentence? The homework is going on to be done by John? Or the homework is going on to do by John? Which is right? Can I change the sentence to

    There is some homework going on for John to do.

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A little more context explains this:

But I think there are some deeper things going on to do, you know, deep within the human psyche, to do with an unwillingness to face up to the severity of what the climate scientists are saying is going to unfold, is already unfolding but will unfold over the next decades.

The speaker interrupts himself after to do, but then resumes: “to do with an unwillingness...”. That is, he is saying that the deeper things which are going on (things which are occurring) have to do with our reluctance to face the truth.

(Note that the passage is an excerpt from an unscripted interview with the speaker. This sort of incoherence is inevitable in impromptu speech: people speak in ‘bursts’ of words and find they’ve got new thoughts or qualifications before they finish.)

Have to do with is an idiom meaning be concerned with, involve. The have piece is often dropped when the phrase is used participially, things having to do with; this is because an older version of the idiom uses be rather than have, so bare to do with is felt to be a sort of adjective.

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    I'll have a go at removing the incoherence that StoneyB mentions: "But I think there are some deeper things going on, deep within the human psyche, having to do with an unwillingness to face up t othe severity of what the climat scientists are saying."
    – BobRodes
    Feb 19, 2014 at 14:54

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